Northanger Temple
by Serenanna
Summary: For the NF KakaSaku Halloween/Anti-Fanfic Contest. It was a dark and stormy night in a rundown temple, and some places are better left unexplored, especially by gothic-novel loving kunoichi with a deeply ingrained curiosity streak. Lemon, KakaSaku.


Northanger Temple

A Naruto fanfiction, By Serenanna

Part 1 – The Advantages of Natural Folly in a Beautiful Girl

Warnings and Disclaimers: I don't own or profit from Naruto or any of the characters. I'm just borrowing them to play with. I'll return them later, promise. There is adult language and content as well as sexual situations. So, if you're under 18, leave now before your virgin eyes are scarred forever, if you're over 18, enjoy!

Story Notes: This is a Kakashi/Sakura one shot of the lemon variety. For the sake of clarity, the ages are about Sakura, 18, and Kakashi, 32, two years after the current timeline. Being this is fanfiction, liberties were taken with the actions of the characters and timelines. Certain parts of the fic are not canon. Given this was a challenge fic, I do not claim responsibility if this fic resembles someone else's or if this one even makes sense whatsoever. Blame KrickItat and the KakaSaku Community on Narutofan for organizing a Halloween challenge that was too good to resist. I'm just aiming to deliver the goods.

The title is in homage to Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. Yes, the plot of this is a take off of that if you've read the novel, but, you know, it's Naruto.

**********

_The door creaked open with a squeal that made her nerves jangle all the more, as if the thunder outside wasn't enough. She shouldn't have been there. She was strictly forbidden from being there, but she couldn't help it anymore. Too much had happened for her to ignore her own instincts anymore. _

_Something very wrong was going on in this Abbey. Cobwebs stuck to her face when she moved along the wall, brushing them aside as she passed. The air was thick and heavy with dust, choking her breath. She struggled not to cough, wanting to remain as silent as possible lest she be heard by the master of the house entering a place she where she was not supposed to be_

_Of all the rooms there, why did he forbid her from looking in that room, the one at the top of the west tower? She knew that he always went up there after their supper together. She knew that he never reappeared, for she always spent the entire evening alone, until he came down at dawn. Why was he gone most of the night? Why didn't he ever tell her about what he did? Didn't he trust her? She was supposed to be his. And yet, somehow, she felt more like a prisoner living in that beautiful house than his wife. _

_Lightning flashed across a tall skylight, illuminating the stones of steep spiraling staircase before her for only an instant. The small candle in her hand only lit the way before her feet, a soft warm glow juxtaposed by the cold darkness. Wood creaked overhead and she tried not to jump at the sound. In spite of her fear, her feet propelled her forward to the stairs. Up and up she went, creeping close to the top of the tower with each step as the storm rumbled overhead. Reaching the top, she discovered that no light peeked out from under the doorway. _

_He wasn't there?_

_Thunder crashed and she lunged for the door anyway, turning the latch then pushing it open. The room was pitch black except for the glow of her candle as she cautiously stepped forward. Another bolt of thunder illuminated the room for a moment, revealing some movement in the darkness. The floor creaked and her heart leapt into her throat. There was someone, or something here. An inhuman cackling sounded in the dark. "You shouldn't have come here."_

_And then-_

**********

"Naruto! I was reading that!" Sakura screamed at her teammate.

The blond young man in question held the paperback book aloft, away from her flailing hands as he walked slowly beside her. A look of distaste pinched his nose as he squinted at the pages. "Geez, Sakura-chan, it's just a crummy book," he grumbled, turning it sideways, "It's not even that good, no pictures or anything."

"You would need a picture book to be able to read! Give it back!"

"I never told you that I couldn't read, just that I like pictures," he argued with a smirk when she missed grabbing it from him again, "This, on the other hand, is just a crummy book."

"But it's _my_ crummy book! Give it back!" she shouted, jumping up and finally ripping it from his fingers. He shot her an angry look one moment before cracking up in laughter the next. "You're going to turn into a bibliophile like Kakashi-sensei if you keep reading at this rate, Sakura-chan," Naruto joked with a chuckle.

His mirth was cut short by a sock to the shoulder from the very pissed off kunoichi. Grunting off the slight pain, he then started to rub his wounded shoulder when the stinging sensation failed to dissipate. Leave it to Sakura of the Angry Fist to give him a dead arm. "Geez, it's just a stupid book."

She probably would have hit him again for that comment if she hadn't been too busy looking over her shoulder at the pair behind them. Sai, who most likely looked off in another direction on purpose, walked next to Kakashi, who, as normal, was totally absorbed in his book. The older, silver-haired man must have sensed Sakura's eyes on him because he glanced up a moment later only to have missed her gaze when she quickly turned back towards Naruto. "I am not turning into Kakashi-sensei. I don't read porn."

"With the way you fawn over this stuff, you may as well."

Her fist pulled back to punch him again, but Naruto ducked, covering his precious head of golden, spiky hair with his arms. Sighing at the pathetic picture he made, she forcefully released her anger and let her arm flop back down to her side. "Forget it. You're not worth it," she muttered and tucked the slim book into her back hip pouch, "You've ruined my mood for reading anyway."

Despite how he cowered away, Naruto still snickered at her, the fox-like whiskers on his face giving his grin a mischievous appearance, regardless of whether he intended it or not. Sakura quickly walked ahead of everybody, not about to put up with their torment of her for another moment. The sun was bright overhead, but the day itself was slightly cold and an autumn breeze blew through the trees. Leaves had begun to fall to the forest floor, coloring their path with shades of gold, orange, and fiery red. Twigs snapped and broke, signaling each step taken since the shinobi were not being as careful as they typically were about where they walked. Anyway, it wasn't like their mission was too important, which was why Kakashi insisted on a casual stroll instead of a dash through the treetops. And why Sakura was able to try and enjoy her book as well. That certainly turned out great, she thought to herself in a sarcastic tone.

In the distance she could hear even Sai, who typically didn't care for Naruto's antics, laughing softly at her expense. It was no surprise that Kakashi was too riveted on his reading to know what was going on, let alone come to her defense. It was all typical team behavior when they weren't busy attempting to kill someone or rescue someone else.

Boys- they just didn't understand anything. Ok, so she read books. It was a better and more productive hobby than beating her teammates to a twitching pulp. Men- they were so immature sometimes. You'd think those three young men she knew so well would have grown up by now, but they clung to their juvenile behavior like Kakashi to his porn. Sure, sparing kept them in top form and all, but did they have to do it all the time? At least her habit of reading books during downtime didn't leave a path of property damage in its wake.

Except maybe when one of them tried to steal her books. Then she did get a bit, well, destructive. Naruto was lucky she didn't just pick him up and send him colliding through a few trees. It's not like it would seriously hurt him anyways, considering how near to indestructible he had become in just a few years. It almost seemed like he wanted her to hit him when she took into consideration how often he set himself up to be her favorite punching bag. So why pull her punches? Sakura grumbled to herself, stewing over that idea. "I should have hit him harder."

She walked by herself and at the front of the line. Sakura knew there were now three sets of eyes on her back, not that she cared. They could stare at her all they wanted. She wasn't about to slip back into formation to be aggravated yet again by Naruto's inevitable teasing when she pulled her book back out. Damnit, and she was just getting to the best part!

"Hey Dickless, which one was she reading today?"

Sakura's hackles rose up in annoyance at the sound of Sai's voice.

Naruto kept on chuckling despite the use of his loathed nickname by their dark-haired companion, having gotten used to it over the years. "The Duke's Virgin Wife of Bloody-Boring Abbey."

"I can hear you!" she shouted back at them.

"She must have finished the Baron's Syphilitic Whore of Ominous Storm-inspired Keep."

"And I'll kill you!"

In spite of her threats, they both kept on laughing. "At least it isn't the Count's Useless Mistress of Pointless Castle," said a cool voice from the branches above them.

Sakura snorted in indignation as Sasuke jumped down from the trees to land in a graceful crouch beside Naruto. "Ok, I get the point. So I like romantic gothic novels. The titles are corny, and the thrills are cheap. At least it's better than Shino's bug collection, I mean, at least it's something!" she shouted. "Make fun of it all you want, I can still turn all three of you into mincemeat with just my pinkie."

"Aww, but Sakura-chan, we're not making fun of you, honest," Naruto said, sounding rather earnest. "We're just making fun of your books."

"And the horrible apes with man breasts on the cover," Sasuke muttered under his breath.

"You're just jealous that you're flatter than me when it comes to your man-titties, Sasuke," she retorted with a smirk and a look at his flat, still boyish chest.

"She's right. Even I have more boobs than you," the blond beside him snickered until the last surviving Uchiha whacked him on his already numb shoulder. Naruto shoved back at his friend, not getting much of a reaction out except for a small grunt.

"Just goes to show all your fine feminine features, Dickless," Sai added with his familiar fake smile.

"Nobody asked your opinion, Asshole!" Naruto shouted back.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Kakashi-sensei reads porn instead of watching it, doesn't he? Why don't you all be macho men and bug him about that, huh?"

Apparently, that wasn't evasive enough since they all burst out laughing at her, except for Kakashi of course. Hearing his name, he finally looked up from his book and blinked. "I must have missed something . . ."

The three young men only laughed harder. After a minute, Sasuke nudged his friend and nodded towards deeper in the forest. Sakura groaned. She knew the look they were giving one another. No doubt this spelt trouble for some poor, defenseless patch of trees when they tried beating each other to a bloody pulp. And no doubt they would later be asking her to patch them back up. The pair grinned at each other, and then took off running ahead of her, jumping up into the branches. "Don't go too far!" she shouted after them.

Somehow, she doubted they even heard her. She could only hope one of them would crack their heads open or something equally tragic, yet karmically deserved. If only she were so fortunate. Grumbling to herself, she ignored all four of them, "Boys . . . useless, idiotic, insensitive, coarse, aggressive, violent, hormone-driven boys."

They were lucky they were all her friends and teammates, or else she would definitely have killed them by now . . . or at least severely maimed them. The only one who wasn't pissing her off at that moment was Kakashi, but even then he wasn't doing much to help her cause.

Well, at least their old mentor was smart enough to know when to keep quiet, which probably said a lot about his familiarity with her temper. Come to think of it, he hadn't really said much to her in a while. It was fairly weird considering how talkative the deceptively reclusive man typically was around her. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw him hunched nose first into his book. Oh, well, perhaps he was just having a really good read or something. Sakura attributed to just another quirk of Kakashi's perpetual oddness.

As soon as she looked away though, the Copy nin's dark eye rose up from his well-worn pages to focus on Sakura . . . and her posterior. Oh, how he loved the privileges of seniority, most of all being able to bring up the rear without anyone questioning his motives. She was taunting him with what he couldn't have, or at least her outfit was. He may have been aware of the usefulness of tight fitting clothing, but those stretchy black shorts of hers were ridiculously tight. Every time she moved, he could see exactly how taut the muscles of her thigh and buttocks were. That tan split skirt she wore did nothing but exaggerate each movement, framing her pert little bottom like curtains on a window. The swish of cloth back and forth was downright hypnotic.

He knew he shouldn't have been staring, but he couldn't exactly help but ogle. It was just too hard not to look, and looking made him feel dirty; very, very dirty. Bad, very bad, nasty, naughty, horrible, completely and utterly perverted, and-

"Taichou, you're staring at her again," Sai pointed out matter-of-factly.

Suddenly, it felt a bit warm underneath his mask.

Kakashi's gaze quickly diverted back down to his book. "I haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about."

"You have been stealing looks at Sakura-san's rear end for as long as I have been on this team."

"That means you've been looking as well, Sai," he pointed out as they continued walking, "Let's just leave it at that."

A blanker look fell over the younger man's stoic face, but Kakashi knew he was thinking. Sai may have perfected looking aloof at a young age, but he wasn't that good at it any longer. Two years of actually being allowed to experience human emotions and bonding had ruined his perpetual impassivity. Still, the void in his black eyes made Kakashi wonder what he could be thinking, and he felt a very real sense of dread. A moment later Sai replied, "Respectfully taichou, I believe you've been staring at her ass more often in the past few months and with a distinctly more focused look in your eye when gazing at other areas of her person . . ."

The Copy nin bit the inside of his mouth to keep from cursing out loud. He was caught, not that he was at all surprised by that. What did surprise him, though, was the brat's unusual perceptiveness. Sai probably didn't even know the half of what was going on. "And why would that be?" Kakashi probed, knowing he would not like the answer.

"I believe your eye lingers over her because you are conflicted. You know Sakura-san better than I, and have for much longer, so you are intimately familiar with her history. You are her former sensei, and she still addresses you as such, and you are also her taichou. You know what she was before, and what she has become now. And yet . . ." Sai trailed off, glancing forward again at the young woman in question, "Therein her lies a temptation you are unwilling to take advantage of, given your previous relationship, to become even more intimately familiar with her. You have no idea how to proceed or if you even should, and are, thus, conflicted."

Ok, so maybe he did know the half of what was going on between himself and Sakura, and a lot more than that. Or he was just really good at guessing.

"You know, since becoming a member of this team you have learned much too much about what it means to feel and form bonds with people. I thought that you had stopped learning about a year ago. Keep pretending to a tactless asshole just because you like it and see if you can get away with it," Kakashi said in return, giving Sai one of his happy eye creases.

"I believe you're right." Sai smiled back, fake of course. "I also believe I'm right."

And damnit, was he ever right. He fought down a sigh, guessing it wasn't worth it anymore to keep his little secret any longer. "Assuming you're correct then, which you seem pretty sure of, you should then also see the problem any such relationship with Sakura would cause . . ."

". . . No, not really."

Kakashi blinked at him for a moment, before his dark eye narrowed on the peculiar young man. "What exactly are you getting at?"

"What you see blocking your way is merely your own morals. You think you have to behave better as her superior, and so you do. You think she is untouchable to you, so you act like she is. That is your own problem to overcome if you do resolve to form such a new bond with Sakura . . . which will probably be near impossible given how stubborn you are, not to mention your high moral standards."

The silver-haired jounin frowned while closing his precious book. Sai was, yet again, probably right in his perception of the problem. But he spoke too freely about compromising one's own morals, probably because the guy had none of his own. It wasn't just a moral dilemma holding him back from Sakura. If he was only after sex, resisting the siren's call to look at her would have been a lot easier. No, he just had to have emotional involvement compounding the problem further. He had a crush on her, and there was absolutely no way to resolve it that he could see. By comparison, resigning himself to a distant, unrequited love was easy. Still, the conversation made Kakashi curious, which was never a good thing. "But what if my intentions towards Sakura are, say, less than pure?" he asked.

"I doubt that. You've shown yourself to be a respectable gentleman, taichou, in spite of your more unusual choices of reading material. You also would not have just been staring at her for this long without making a move already if it was only about sex. I would say your intentions towards her are romantic in nature and not just . . . erotic."

"Anyone ever tell you that you're too bright for your own good?" Kakashi teased with a sardonic smirk hidden under his mask.

"Yes," Sai answered with genuine smile, "And often."

Fighting down another sigh, Kakashi cracked open his book and flipped to the place he had left off. He had barely read an entire sentence when he found his eye wandering back up to Sakura's ass. A distant, unrequited love seemed like all he could afford anyway. Anything else would spoil the thrill of denied pleasure he got just from watching her. A barely disguised laugh that was supposed to sound like a cough made him look away and towards the source of the disruption with anger. "If my habit is affecting you, I suggest you walk ahead of me."

"It wasn't that, taichou," Sai explained with what Kakashi could only describe as a small smirk on his lips, "Perhaps you do no realize it, but Sakura-san is, well . . ."

"I wasn't aware that she was in any relationships currently," he assumed, given how the young man had trailed off.

"She isn't."

"Well, then I fail to see a problem."

"Which is exactly the problem . . ." he trailed off. That blank look was on his face again. He was thinking, or at least trying to piece his next few words together carefully. "Have you ever noticed anything _odd_ about Sakura-san's behavior around men?"

Did he mean the fact that she attracted them like flies to honey? "I figured her attractiveness to the opposite sex was a given."

"Not that, her behavior towards them, taichou."

"You mean the stand-offish attitude she has? Well, yes, now that you mention it. She does tend to smash first then ask questions later . . ." Kakashi grumbled, feeling inclined to rub his head in sympathy, even if he had never been on the receiving end of one of Sakura's blows. "I don't think that's the point you are trying to make though."

"No, it isn't that either . . . Maybe, I should ask it like this. Have you noticed how _oblivious_ she is about the feelings of men interested in her affection?"

Kakashi blinked at him. No, he hadn't noticed at all. A grim look fell across Sai's face. "So, you've never heard then how she rejected all three of us, myself, Naruto, and Sasuke?"

Given how the Copy nin stared at Sai incredulously, he hadn't. "It wasn't all of us at once."

"Oh . . ." The look on his face looked less skeptical, if only marginally. "If I may ask, how exactly did it happen then?"

"Do you remember Sasuke's return?"

He couldn't forget it that was for sure. The Hokage had Sasuke sequestered in ANBU interrogation rooms for months, answering a nearly endless series of questions about his association with Orochimaru, Akatsuki, his own brother Itachi, and the elusive Uchiha Madara, who everyone had believed was dead. When he was finished, it took another month in the Konoha hospital psych ward to clear him for release into the general population of the village. It was even longer before he emerged from hiding in his new residence. Kakashi knew all of this because he had to be there at each interrogation, each examination, and each test to make sure Sasuke knew that at least someone cared about his continued existence. Perhaps he wasn't the only one concerned about the troubled young man at the time either. He should have realized sooner that the Uchiha's former teammates had also been interested in his recovery.

Kakashi nodded, prompting him to continue. "Do you remember then that Sakura tried dating him during the first few weeks he was allowed back into the general population?"

He shook his head. No, he hadn't known about that at all.

"She . . . well, after about the third date, Sasuke was almost ready to propose and start rebuilding his clan with her, when Sakura said, and I quote, 'I like you, Sasuke . . . But you really suck as a boyfriend'."

The silver-haired shinobi winced. "I hope he didn't buy a ring . . ."

"I don't know about that, but I do know Naruto asked her out a few weeks later."

"What happened to him?"

"It was dinner at Ichiraku, which is not surprising. In the middle of it, Naruto said he said something sappy, like, 'I wish I could eat ramen with you forever, Sakura-chan' to which she replied, and I quote, 'But I eat ramen with you everyday already.'"

Kakashi cringed. "So, she didn't take the hint, huh?"

"No, considering she then said that they could be friends forever instead."

"Ouch . . ." he muttered in sympathy, "How exactly did she reject you then?"

"Oh, quite easily. She didn't even know she did, I think. I gave her a picture I had inked of her, a simple token of my affection . . . and then she hugged me and said what a great friend I was, like a brother to her."

It took much effort on Kakashi's part not to groan in sympathy. As horrible as it was, Sai's point was well founded. There was much more to Sakura than he realized if she could so seamlessly charm then rebuff all three of her teammates in turn. And to think she did it almost unconsciously as well. It was rather disheartening to hear. "There wasn't anyone else, was there?" he asked nervously, almost afraid of what tale of rejection the ink-user would tell next.

"Well, there was Lee too. He actually attempted to propose to her in the hospital once. After he got down on his hands and knees, he reached behind his back for the ring, and Sakura assumed he had a back injury and had collapsed in pain. He spent the next three days in traction being waited on by her when she ended up hurting his back while trying to adjust it."

"That doesn't sound too bad . . . somewhat."

"Except how all he heard from her non-stop was how _nice_ of a guy he was, and that he should date a _nice_ girl that wasn't her."

Ok, so he was wrong. It did get worse, which left Kakashi wondering what exactly the ink artist was getting at. "Why are you telling me this, Sai?" he questioned, trying to work out the young man's motivations in his head. "At first you seem to be almost promoting the idea that I pursue Sakura, and then the story you give me is a cautionary one. I could assume you're being helpful, but you're usually not that helpful."

"On the contrary, I care enough about Sakura-san to wish to see her happy, even if it is not with myself. I won't say you deserve her, but I believe that out of the four men on this team to try their hands at winning her love, you're the most likely to succeed where we have failed," Sai explained with a serious nod towards the troublesome kunoichi ahead of them, "Besides, someone has to, or we'll never know the color of her underwear, let alone settle the bet."

The new smile that graced Sai's lips wasn't fake, which meant he was actually serious. "The three of you are betting on the color of Sakura's underwear?" Kakashi repeated, not quite believing what he had heard.

"And the cut too. Naruto says white granny panties, Sasuke bet on black briefs, but I say a pink thong, wouldn't you agreed?"

"Actually, they're probably red, skimpy hip-huggers," the Copy nin replied before realizing that he was speculating on Sakura's undergarment while stealing a glance at her swaying hips. Whatever she had on under those curve-hugging shorts, he couldn't see a single panty line. Maybe she wore none at all, a thought that made Kakashi's fingers twitch nervously over the spine of his book. A moment later, he was composed enough to look at Sai with disdain. "You're getting ahead of yourself if you think I even want an opportunity to see Sakura's panties," he pointed out with a nod of his own, "I never did say if I would pursue her or not. What I choose to do and not to do is none of your business after all."

"I know it isn't, but I am patient. Nothing has to happen right away. There's a natural course to everything, and I believe sooner rather than later that something will happen between you both, and I will be there to see it happen. I can be very patient," Sai said as a false smile spread across his face.

Or was it? For once, Kakashi couldn't tell if the young man's creepy expression was genuine or not. If it was, Sai certainly wasn't smiling to seem nice. Unconsciously, Kakashi took a step away from him as they continued moving forward through the trees, a chill running up his spine. Tentatively, he looked back down at his book, attempting to ignore the oddity and lose himself in the words. He hadn't even read the first word when he heard Sakura shouting back to them, "Hey! Kakashi-sensei! Where are we going anyway?"

**********

"Woah . . ." Sakura and Naruto said in unison as they looked up the massive stone steps before them that lead up towards the building complex above. The forest enshrouded the path up the hill, making it hard to see the temple at the very top. What they could see, though, was the open red gates that framed the entrance. The wood looked like it was starting to rot from the inside out around the base, the bright crimson varnish doing little to disguise that fact.

The more she looked, the more things Sakura could find wrong with the place. Fallen leaves covered the path at their feet, drifting in the gentle wind to pile up in dry banks. The stone steps were cracked in places with bright green moss filling the gaps along with darker colored primordial forms of mold and slime. The trees weren't just encroaching; they were conquering the territory over the uneven stone path. Looking up, she could see the roof of the temple in a state of disrepair, dark tiles missing from the structure in frequent patches. Either the area wasn't attracting enough travelers to warrant being properly maintained or there was something ominous about this place.

She hoped it was the latter as she became nearly giddy with excitement.

It was just like in all her books! The unwitting heroine transported to ominous surroundings with a secret to unravel! This place had to have a secret, right? All dark, creepy places did, so how could this one be any different? Maybe some rich, handsome, single monk lived here, too busy with a hidden obsession to bother taking care of it. What if he was abducting wayward travels to do nefarious things?! Something bad had to be happening here. There just had to be, look at this place!

Sakura stood there, almost beside herself with joy and gazed rapturously at the temple. "It's a piece of crap . . ." Sasuke grumbled just behind her shoulder.

"It's interesting . . . in an unsanitary way," Sai added with skepticism.

"It's scary-looking," Naruto said with a shiver in his voice.

"It's wonderful!" Sakura cried out in joy. The three young men stared at her, utterly perplexed by the outburst.

"It's also where we're staying for the night," Kakashi said, walking past the four and starting up the stairs, "Don't get too comfortable. We'll be moving out in the morning, after helping out a little bit of course. I expect you all to make offerings as well. We won't have much time, so I expect you to be up bright and early."

The three boys grumbled and trooped up the stairs after him, knowing exactly what he meant by 'bright and early.' "But, Kakashi-sensei, is getting up at the ass-crack of dawn really necessary for an escort mission? You haven't exactly been pushing us until now," Naruto groused.

"Being on time is important to being professional, along with taking responsibility. So we have to do both: help here if we want to stay for the night and be punctual."

"But, Kakashi-sensei-"

"Would you rather sleep outside tonight, Naruto?"

"No, but . . . I don't see what's so important that we have to wake up that early."

"Our actual mission is a few towns over from here and we have to be there at noon to meet with the client. It'll be a sprint tomorrow morning to get there on time. I know the assignment isn't up to your usual standards of potential violent death, but we've been requested for this one, and we're being paid well."

"But the guy isn't even in danger! He just wants us so he can look cool with real shinobi bodyguards!"

"Then think of it as easy rent money for the next few months, assuming you're not still slumming it at the Hyuuga mansion," Sasuke grumbled at him, "Unlike you, I have bills to pay. I am too poor to afford your whining."

The very mention of Hyuuga made the fox-man's mouth snap shut as he started to move up the stairs a little faster. "Leave Hinata-chan out of this, and I am not slumming it there. It's all your fault I had to leave my apartment in a hurry in the first place."

The Uchiha heir smirked, knowing full well that the shy heir of the Hyuuga's was a sore subject with his friend. Apparently, Naruto still hadn't proposed to her. He had no idea what the idiot was waiting for. The girl did like him after all. Letting the subject drop, like Naruto asked, he replied instead, "That wasn't my fault. It was just an accident."

"You tore the roof off showing off that new jutsu!"

"Like I said, accident."

"Less talking, more walking," Kakashi interrupted. He could tell a fight was brewing. The pair went back to climbing, muttering curses under their breaths at their leader, the steps beneath their feet, and each other.

Unlike them, Sakura didn't complain, since she was too enthralled by the place to focus on anything else at the moment. The closer they got to the top and the temple itself, the more her tension and excitement rose. She felt like she would burst any moment.

About halfway up the hill, the kunoichi suddenly stopped, her eyes catching sight of something in the underbrush. Her heart sped up as she took a step closer towards it. Low lying branches fell across what looked like a stone slate. Taking a slow, cautionary step forward, Sakura reached out to pull a branch out of the way. Leaves fell from the withered limb at her touch. Moss covered the stone in places, the rough surface smoothed away with by the strident passage of time. Pulling chunks of the spongy plant away revealed the vague figure of a woman looking back with only one eye. The rest of her face was gone, either intentionally or through weathering away. Among the hazy folds of her robes was an abundance of hatch lines in the stone, marking the fur of a thick, fox-like tail.

It was an old kitsune shrine. She knew that much. While that knowledge should have calmed her, she still took a step back when a shiver ran down her spine. "Kakashi-sensei . . . what kind of place is this? Why aren't there people here to take care of the shrines?" she asked in a curious yet cautious tone of voice.

"It's just a temple, Sakura, nothing more. It's old and out of the way for most travelers. I thought I mentioned that already."

"Then why are we here?" Sasuke asked, butting into the discussion with a scowl on his face, "Except for the obvious reason of putting us all to work for free."

"Because I've stayed here before and I know the local monk fairly well. I decided it was a good idea to pay him a visit after so many years."

"But, don't any of you get the feeling that something is very wrong here?" Sakura whispered half in fear and half excitement at the same time.

"No," the four men said in unison before moving on without her as she continued staring wearily at the shrine.

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei, what's the name of this place anyway?" Naruto asked.

"Northanger Temple."

"Huh? What kind of name is Northanger?" he questioned with a touch of disdain and a disgruntled sniff.

Sakura only vaguely heard the rest of the conversation as they progressed on. She wasn't paying attention anyway. Something about this place was definitely getting to her . . . and she loved every moment of it. A small smile came upon her as she stepped up to the kitsune shrine again and started clearing off the moss and leaves with her bare hands. Taking her canteen, she splashed the water onto the stone, washing away some of the dirt. She took a left over riceball, uneaten from her lunch, and left it at the base of the statue before folding her hands and saying a small prayer to the kitsune woman.

Her smile widened as she turned away, running up the steps after her teammates with an extra spring in her step. "Hey! Wait up already!"

**********

"Oi! Jii-san!" Naruto shouted up towards the roof. Sakura slowed from a run to a walk as she approached them. After climbing the steps, they had gone to the right side of the building instead of entering it, moving past the tall opening gate and two stone sentries sculpted in the form of snarling dogs. It seemed weird to a following Sakura at the time but she soon understood their route when a banging sounded in the distance. The four men were standing around a ladder that leaned precariously against the roof's overhang. The pounding that had been coming from on top of the temple stopped.

Moments later, a hammer came flying down from the roof to hit the blond right on the top of his head. Sakura had to cover her mouth with her hands quickly to keep from laughing out loud as Naruto wobbled about, looking as though he'd fall right over. He clutched the growing bump on his head in pain before shouting up to the roof, "Oi! What the hell was that for, you crazy old man!?"

"I am not your jii-san, you young whippersnapper!" a gruff, old man shouted from the roof.

"Whippersnapper?" Sasuke muttered to himself as if it was some strange, foreign word he didn't quite understand. From the look of disgust on his face, she could tell that he didn't really want to know the colloquial meaning. Kakashi chuckled to himself before yelling up to the man, "Ignore the children, and come down here, Mikoto-san."

"Kaka-chan?! Is that you?!"

The Copy nin winced when the three young men around him snickered at the nickname. "I'm a bit too old now for that now. Climb down already."

"Ruin an old man's fun why don't you!" Mikoto shouted before they heard his feet scraping on the tiles. The ladder moved with a violent jolt and they looked up to see a figure descending the rungs with shaky uncertainty. It wasn't until he was about half way down that Sakura finally had a good look at the man. The image that had been in her head of a handsome, mysterious young monk quickly died a painful, horrible death at seeing the weathered, short, and balding male before her. Ok, maybe he could have been what she happily imagined her hero being at fifty plus years old . . . but, no, she couldn't, and the bright image she held in her head dimmed.

She tried not to sigh in disappointment, but the sound escaped and ended up devolving into a whine. So much for that. Now with his feet on solid ground, the old priest brushed off his worn white and red robes. Wobbling around, he looked up at Kakashi with a lop-sided grin due to many missing or broken teeth. The image in Sakura's head dimmed a little more, her stomach convulsing in queasiness. "Ahh, it's good to see you again. How many years has it been?"

"Too many," the jounin said with warmth he didn't show any of them very often.

"What brings you here? Another mission? And you brought so many young people with you too!"

"We're just here for the night, passing through to another village. I thought my young friends here could also help out if you need it."

A look of elation fell over the old priest's face. "Ah! Splendid! Wonderful! Wonderful, indeed, ah, yes . . ." he said before stopping, finally taking a look at the five faces around him, "I don't know if I have that many rooms that aren't mothballed."

Sakura tried to smile cheerfully, but failed miserably when her upper lip twitched. Great, another night being forced to tolerate Naruto's snoring. "I'm sure we'll be fine with just one. We're used to roughing it."

"Two at most will be fine. We don't want to inconvenience you, Mikoto-san," Kakashi added with a polite nod.

"Well then, let me show you around the temple here then I'll put you all to work."

"I can hardly wait," Sasuke groused, his brow furrowed in a scowl.

Naruto grumbled as well, still rubbing his sore head. "Don't say anything else, Sasuke. He might have more hammers."

**********

In contrast to Mikoto's disappointing aged appearance, the inside of the temple more than lived up to Sakura's expectations. After removing their shoes and leaving them at the entrance, they were led into a grand stone and wood hallway, the inner shrine of the temple. As opposed to the ramshackle exterior, the interior looked to be well kept at first glance. It wasn't a surprise at all considering that was all the old man would have been able to take care of on his own.

Looking closer though, Sakura noticed the less obvious signs of deterioration. Cobwebs had been spun in nearly every nook in the high ceiling above them. There was water damage to the wood above where there were small gaps in the roofing tiles, giving the entire place a cold, dark, and dank feel. The only remotely bright spot was the overlook to the left through the timber pillars. But even then, she could imagine how unsettling the view out to the forest could be at night, when it was dark and one would be all alone. She could hear the howling wind and the rustling of leaves and the stone floor felt cold under her feet. It made her feel vulnerable for a moment, and she loved it.

Not far away, there was a wing leading off of the right side of the shrine, which they were led them down next. Given how well kept this part of the building looked, they could assume that it was Mikoto's personal living area. Tatami mats covered the floor while wooden paneling and screen doors partitioned off the rooms. He led them first through a more modern looking kitchen and into a living and dining room that held only a low table with pillows neatly arranged around it for seating. A large screen door opened out onto a wooden walkway surrounding the building and overlooking one of the temple's gardens.

Moving along, he slid back another screen door to reveal a long, narrow hallway. They followed as he pointed out the various rooms: storage rooms, unused bed rooms, old, empty training rooms, and then finally the bath and the toilet at the end of the hall. Sakura noticed that what Mikoto didn't point out was one room in particular, a small door at the bend in the hallway. It must have lead to somewhere, right? Either the room was really insignificant, or . . . maybe Mikoto was hiding something in there!

Sakura's interest was peeked when she broke away from the group as he was about to lead them through a side door out into the garden. "Now, over here is-. Hey!" the priest shouted as he noticed the kunoichi moving in the opposite direction, "Where do you think you're going, missy? Get back here! We're going to see the garden!"

She stopped just short of the small door, looking at it curiously a moment before pointing at it. "You didn't mention this door. What's in there?"

Mikoto sniffed at her, craggy face pinched. "That?" he asked before turning away with a dismissive wave, "Oh, it's nothing. Just don't touch what's in there, ok?"

"But what's-?"

"It's nothing, young lady, so respect your elders and leave it alone."

"But-"

"Sakura, that's enough," Kakashi interrupted her, knowing from the growing excitement on her face that further questioning wouldn't accomplish anything good, "If Mikoto-san says to leave it alone, then we must respect his wishes. It is probably something unimportant anyway."

"But, Kakashi-sensei, then why doesn't he just tell us what's in there then?"

"Perhaps it is something private; perhaps he doesn't feel the need to satisfy your overactive imagination," he said with a smirk underneath his mask as the young men around him tried to hold down their chuckles. Sakura glared at them and so did the Copy nin, silencing the laughter almost as soon as it started.

The only one who still laughed was Mikoto, the sound rusty and more sinister than the friendly chuckles she expected. "So, the young lady is rather fanciful, isn't she?" he asked with a snicker.

Sakura scowled at him. "I am not. I just find it odd you wouldn't mention anything about this door until I pointed it out. I've had a very foreboding feeling ever since we entered this place, and it hasn't gone away . . . I think you're hiding something," she said very bluntly.

A stern look from their leader suddenly made her wish she had held her curiosity in check. "Sakura-"

Raising his hand, Mikoto interrupted Kakashi then sighed regretfully. "It's alright, old friend, your female companion has found me out. It's no use hiding it anymore."

The Copy nin blinked at him, about to protest until the raised hand rose even higher. "No, no, there no need to defend me. They would have learned about it sooner or later."

Looking disgruntled, Kakashi stared at Mikoto as he continued. "You must not enter that room, young lady, ever, not if you value your life!" the old priest said dramatically, pointing towards the door Sakura stood in front of.

The kunoichi gasped in fear when it was truly excitement, but her friends were less than impressed. "Oh, brother . . ." Sasuke grumbled with a deep frown.

"Silence, young whippersnapper!" the monk shouted at the dark-haired man, "If you know what's good for you, you'll listen to me."

From the smirk on the Uchiha's face, it was easy to tell that he wouldn't believe the old bat no matter what he said. Naruto, similarly, didn't look very impressed as he snickered to himself. The laughter stopped, though, at the old monk's next words. "Have some respect for the dead, young man. One of my predecessors died in that room . . ."

The blond felt a lump rise in his throat before he swallowed it hard. "D-d-died?"

Sakura's eyes widened as she fought down an excited cry. This was just like one of her books, with some horrible ghost story haunting that room! And yet, all her joy ended the moment Mikoto gave her a serious look.

"She died a few years before I became a priest. She killed herself in that room," he said before giving a significant look to Kakashi. "She is the real reason no one visits this temple anymore. All the locals believe their prayers are no longer heard here because her spirit haunts this place."

The skeptical look on the Copy nin's face didn't change as the old priest continued. "It was all over a local man. The head miko of the temple was in love with him, but then he married someone else, a popular village girl. The priestess went mad, obsessed with love and the man she couldn't have. She haunted him, following in his steps everywhere while not attending to her duties at the temple. Some thought she was possessed by the spirit of a kitsune who had tricked her into pursing a married man because the fox-woman was madly in love with him herself.

Then, one day, the man's wife confronted the miko in front of the other village women and denounced her. Thinking her possessed, the women hurled rocks at her body to cast the spirit out, and the miko fled. Nobody in the village ever saw her alive again. Even in this very temple, she isolated herself from everyone and everything, hiding in that room. No one knew what had become of her until one of her attendants saw the food from the previous night's dinner left untouched outside that door. Barging their way in, they found her body hanging from the ceiling by a piece of silk."

"So, she killed herself," Sasuke said with a smirk, "And you expect us to believe her vengeful spirit is now haunting the temple? I don't believe in ghosts, and anyone that does is stupid."

Sakura shot him an evil glare. "How do you know they don't exist, Sasuke? You seem to know an awful lot about everything."

"Because it's stupid; that's how I know."

"You only think it's stupid because you can't get your hands on one and kill it."

"Shut up, Sakura. You just want to believe in it because of those stupid books!"

"They're not stupid, idiot!" she yelled back at him, "They're only stupid to you because you don't have one romantic bone in your body! It's why you sucked as a boyfriend and continue to suck now!"

"I don't think Sasuke sucks . . . much," the blond interrupted.

"Shut up, Naruto!" the pair yelled at him together.

"You're all being childish," Sai inserted in a bored tone of voice.

"No one asked your opinion, asshole," Uchiha snapped back.

"Bite me, Jerkface."

A snake instantaneously appeared in Sasuke's hands. "With pleasure, ass-wipe."

Before he could hurl the venomous animal at the subject of his animosity, Kakashi snagged his wrist. The viper disappeared just as quickly as it had arrived and a happy eye crease formed on his droopy eye. He waited for Sasuke to settle down before letting go. "Now, now, play nice for our host here, kids. We're his guests after all."

"If you would all stop arguing, there's more to the story," Mikoto continued before the argument could escalate any further. "I saw the ghost myself when I was younger, and I personally saw its wrath. I was just an apprentice to my former mentor, the head priest, at the time. There were still three monks living here, though the rest of the temple attendants had fled, either chased away by something or just disappearing one day."

"Disappearing?" Sakura questioned, sounding breathless, "What happened to them?"

"No one knows. I didn't believe in the dead miko's ghost until I opened that door one night and saw her staring back at me. I have never been so scared in my life. I told one of my older brothers-in-training what I saw, but he didn't believe me. He said he wanted to see the ghost himself. The next morning, his body was lying by the door, dead."

"Seriously?" Sasuke asked, still skeptical of the entire story.

Mikoto nodded. "It was spider bites -- dozens of them all over his body, or so the doctor that examined him said. He also said the spiders could not be from this area since that species preferred wetlands. We found one later, crawling out from under that door. They were huge things, with fangs. _She _must have summoned them to kill him."

The formidable, always vengeful Uchiha paled, not an easy task seeing as his skin was practically white already. He stood rooted to the spot, teeth chattering and practically shivering. "S-s-spiders? With fangs?"

Mikoto nodded again. "Enormous."

"I hate spiders, I really hate spiders . . ." he asked before slowly turning his head toward Kakashi while shaking, "Where in the hell did you bring us to?"

Kakashi's dark eye drooped again as he stared at Mikoto. "That is actually a good question."

The old priest laughed in spite of the stares being directed at him. "If I had told you the first time you came to see me, you never would have come back now, would you, or brought so many others with you?" he asked rhetorically, knowing the obvious answer would have been a firm 'no'.

Standing there, Sakura wasn't really bothered by the spider part since she was nearly beside herself in joy. At long last she was going to be staying overnight in a haunted building, complete with a real ghost! It was a dream come true! Real, supernatural danger for once in her life instead of the threat of having kunai being hurled past her nose! Ino-pig would be so jealous! She could actually die of fright! It certainly seemed more exciting than being blasted apart by some stupid, overpowered jutsu!

"Mikoto-san, does she really kill anyone who enters that room?" she asked, trying to keep a lid on her excitement, "Really? Anyone?"

"Yes, Sakura-chan, anyone who dares to enter there, but she seems to particularly like virgins the most, ones who have not yet felt the warmth of love. Before I arrived here, one of my predecessors was supposedly very handsome, not to mention the real progeny of the man the miko had loved. His father had thought that his son's presence here might quell the wanton spirit, but . . ."

"H-he died, didn't he? Without entering the room?" Sakura asked, finishing the sentence for him, "How did he die?"

"No one knows for sure, but he was most definitely strangled. His throat was crushed and there were finger marks around his neck. Oddly enough, his father died that night as well, strangled by his own wife in a fit of madness before she then hung herself."

A small whimper of fright mixed with excitement escaped Sakura's throat. This was a vengeful spirit indeed to kill so many people. "Why hasn't she killed you then, Mikoto-san? You opened the door once, didn't you?" Sai asked, smiling lightly in spite of his question.

"Because my faith protects me so I can protect and honor the rest of the spirits around this temple. I am the last one left to hold back this evil. Perhaps when I am gone, she will either be quelled or she will run rampant over the land, devouring other innocent travelers. Who knows what will happen. Until then, I am the last defense against the darkness," Mikoto said proudly as Sakura beamed at him.

From the smirks on the faces of the three young men, none of them quite believed the old bat as much as their female companion did. Sasuke rolled his eyes, turning back towards the side door out of the temple and into the garden. "Come on, we don't have time for ghost stories if we're supposed to help fix this place up," he grumbled and started to walk away.

After a moment, Sai and Naruto followed. Sakura took one hesitant step in the same direction, but stopped to look back over her shoulder at the forbidden room. It was true, wasn't it? It had to be true. It was too good a story not to be true! The others may not have believed it, but who cared what the boys thought? They didn't care about anything worthwhile, other than being shinobi and learning more jutsu. Even Sai was becoming caught up in the ongoing competition between Naruto and Sasuke to be the best ninja around. They all may care about her, but they certainly didn't believe in the same things she did. They made great friends and almost brothers, but they would never understand her. Who cared what she believed so long as she believed in something, right?

Oh, how Sakura wanted to keep on believing! Nothing could stop her from believing, not even her doubting teammates who thought they were so smart. Even if it wasn't true, the thought that something really was going on in that temple that the old man was covering up made her want to beam. Something was being hidden from her, and she just knew it! Nearly glowing with excitement, she skipped past Kakashi and Mikoto on her way out the door and then broke out into a run to catch up with the three young men. "Wait up! Would you stop running away like this all the time?!" she shouted at them, bounding down the steps and into the garden.

Left all alone with the monk, the Copy nin's stare didn't let up. "You're a very good storyteller, Mikoto-san . . ." he said after a long moment.

The old man laughed nervously, scratching what little white hair he had left. "It was that obvious, wasn't it? It certainly seemed to fool those kids of yours though."

"They aren't children, except in attitude perhaps," he smirked to himself, knowing the mask covering his face would reveal nothing.

"It was only obvious to me that you made it all up because I knew your dear brother-in-training," Kakashi pointed out, "You had me fooled, too, up until then because he actually died the last time I was here, and even then he died in his sleep of old age. Spider bites? Really?"

"How was I to know the sourpuss of the bunch was deathly afraid of spiders? I just guessed. I was aiming more to scare the young lady since I figured none of the boys would believe me, except maybe that blond."

Mikoto had a point. Naruto would believe just about anything that was told to him elaborately enough. Still, the monk's story would make Sakura unbearable for the next day or so, especially if she did as he feared and actually tried to look into Mikoto's fabricated 'forbidden' room. She was a wonderful girl, so even he would be ducking his head when she ended up being too disappointed. He could only hope that she was more frightened than joyous to go poking around. Nearly sighing to himself, he turned away from the monk and walked casually after his younger teammates before stopping just inside the door. "What is in that room, Mikoto-san?" Kakashi asked after thinking about it a moment, "You still are not exactly being forthcoming."

The old man smiled at him, flashing a wide grin full of missing teeth. "Even I have my secrets to keep, Kaka-chan."

The shinobi frowned at him and shook his head since he knew he shouldn't have even bothered, muttering under his breath, "Crazy old coot . . ."

"I still have good hearing, you know."

**********

Hammers banged on wood as the sun slowly began its descent towards the western horizon. But, that was a few hours away. "Man, when did it get so hot?" Naruto complained.

The pounding of hammers stopped for a moment then started again when no one answered him. As it stood now, the sun was practically hanging over their heads, pouring down heat upon them despite it being nearly mid-autumn. The wind that had accompanied them up until they reached the temple was now gone. The physical labor Mikoto assigned as payment for their food and night's rest didn't mitigate the situation either.

Sasuke stopped hammering as the sweat on his brow became bad enough to impair his vision. He wiped it away with his forearm then looked around the peaked rooftop at the rest of his teammates. Further up, Sai and Naruto worked on the same task, patching rotted holes in the wood underneath the decorative ceramic tiles. All three of them had ended up stripping down because of the heat. Weapons, mesh armor, headbands, and shirts were gone, mostly tossed onto the ground far beneath them to be retrieved later. Roof repair wasn't exactly something they had expected to be doing to begin with.

Their host must have been sadistic on top of crazy, he assumed, or maybe he was taking advantage of them, knowing Kakashi would make them work for free doing anything anyway. This wasn't exactly his idea of honoring the local gods. Couldn't he just leave some food, an offering, or something and be done with it. He was a shinobi of the Leaf, not some damned handyman. The Uchiha scowled as picked up the hammer again, smacking down another nail. "I don't see why we even have to stay here. I could stand sleeping outside another night if it means not having to do this," he complained bitterly.

"Shut up. You know Kakashi-sensei would make us stay. It's why you didn't say anything earlier," Naruto pointed out as he crouched over his own patch, hammering away, "You're just sore because it makes you look un-cool right along with the rest of us."

"I'm sore because I'm sore, idiot."

"And I'm sore in the ears from hearing you both complain," Sai added with a false grin, "Can't we all just be happy?"

Naruto snorted in derision then chuckled, knowing the ink-user had to be kidding. "No way, not with that bastard."

"Nobody asked your opinion, asshole," Sasuke grumbled. Another nail when into the wood with a bang.

"At least those soft beds will feel nice when this is done."

The blond moaned in delirious pleasure, "With pillows."

"And a warm bath," Uchiha added with a smirk, "Ok, I won't complain anymore, but this is still a crock of shit. We've been had."

"What makes you say that?" Sai asked as he reached for another sheet of wood paneling, "It seems like a straight forward deal in this instance."

"It isn't just Kakashi's insistence that's keeping us here; it's Sakura's."

Naruto's eyes rolled. "Here we go again, bastard's problems with his ex-girlfriend."

"She's your ex too, and Sai's ex-crush, and Lee's ex-crush. She's unwittingly gone through more men than I've gone through teams, so don't even start, Naruto. That isn't even the problem. The problem is those stupid books of hers. Thanks to Ino, she's been reading them ever since she broke up with you, and it's getting out of hand."

"Can you just let off her already? The books are pretty stupid, I admit, but she likes them. If we rag on her about them, then we should be ragging on Kakashi-sensei as well. He isn't any better than she is."

"Yes, but taking on Kakashi still intimidates me a little. She doesn't," Sasuke pointed out, waving his hammer at the blond to make his point before pounding down another nail, "He also doesn't act like an idiot about his books either. Oblivious, yes, but it hasn't hurt his common sense either. And you're still not getting my point."

"What is your point then? That Sakura-chan's a fool for believing in ghost stories? Tell us something we don't know."

"I don't think Sakura believes in them per say," Sai said at he stood up, moving up the roof peak towards another patch of missing tiles.

"It certainly seems like it," the Sharingan-wielder grumbled, "Ok, fine, Asshole, what do you think she believes in then?"

"Considering she rejected all three of us, eligible men that we are, well, except for Dickless over there maybe," he said, causing Naruto to raise his hammer in protest and almost throw it at him. He continued, "I think she believes not in the ghosts and vampires themselves, but in the romantic elements of the stories. She's always been a believer in true love, if both of your recollections of her are correct, and she seems to be attracted to a certain type of man."

"What's that?" Sasuke asked skeptically.

"Tall, dark, and brooding," Naruto quipped as he steadied himself on the roof, "It's probably why she dated you for a while."

Sai nearly smirked as he added, "But you obviously didn't live up to her expectations."

A flash of jealousy roared up inside of the Uchiha and he stopped hammering for a moment. Sai was right. He had to be right. It put his entire previous relationship with Sakura in perspective if she only ever dated him because he resembled those big apes in her books. The entire idea made him curious and angry to think that was the real reason she rejected him, and not because he 'sucked' as she so eloquently put it. Grumbling to himself, he started to hammer away at the nails again, "Nobody asked your opinion, asshole."

"Actually, you did a few moments ago."

"Well, I'm not asking for it any more, so shut the hell up."

"So angry," Naruto grumbled with a roll of his eyes, "It's like a spider crawled up your shorts or something."

Sasuke froze in his hammering at the mention of spiders, shivering despite the heat. He then began patting himself down, sure that he felt something tingle up his leg, like the eight legs of a spider. Naruto chuckled, watching his friend nearly convulse while trying to kill creepy crawly things that weren't there. "You are so gullible sometimes."

The Uchiha stopped, glaring at him, "And you're an idiot."

"Look! Spider!" the blonde shouted, pointing towards Sasuke's leg. Expecting his friend to jump, he was surprised when it didn't happen. He was even more surprised when a hammer hit him in the center of his forehead. Naruto yelped in pain as the tool dropped into his lap, clutching the new wound on his face. "You bastard! It was just a joke! Would it kill you to lighten up!?" he shouted, blindly raising his hammer and waving it around threateningly. "You're lucky it hurts too much for me to see at the moment."

Snickering, Sasuke stood up. He walked over and took the tool from Naruto's hand before he even knew it was missing. "Whatever," he muttered while walking back to his spot, "It doesn't change the fact that Sakura finds this place too interesting to leave, especially after Mikoto's story."

Neither of the two other young men said anything as they traded significant looks with each other before staring back at Sasuke. He didn't seem to notice as he went on hammering. A long stretch of nothing but the sound of pounding and hard work carried on . . . until Naruto finally asked, "Do you really think this place is not haunted?"

"Of course it isn't. That story was just to satisfy Sakura's curiosity."

"But what about the part with-?"

"If you say spiders one more time, I will beat you senseless," Sasuke threatened with a growl, the Sharingan flashing in his eyes.

Before Naruto could threaten him back, Sakura appeared at the top of the ladder to the roof. "Do you guys ever stop fighting?" she asked as she finished climbing up, "I'm not healing either one of you if you fall off this thing and break your necks."

Sasuke snorted indignantly before the three of them went back to hammering. The kunoichi slung a bundle off her shoulder, setting it down onto the roof with a clink of ceramic on ceramic. Neatly stacked and bundled with hemp rope was a pile of tiles at her feet, replacements for the ones missing from the temple's roof. Eyeing the stack and then Sakura, Sasuke grumbled, "We're going to need more than just that."

Rolling her jade eyes, she plopped down on the roof with a tired sigh. "Nothing ever pleases you, does it?" she asked as she reached for the canteen inside the medic back attached to the back of her hip.

She took a long swig of cool water then splashed a handful onto her face. Her pink locks stuck to her forehead, but at least she had pulled up the rest into a short, practical ponytail. Her red top and mesh armor underneath was gone, leaving her clad in just the strips of cloth bandages binding her breasts. None of the boys minded though, or if they did, they wouldn't complain about the free show. She was too hot to care what they thought. The only one who ever did seem to care with regards to her was Sasuke, and she could tell he was doing his best at the moment to not scowl.

Sakura rolled her eyes and put the canteen back. "What is it?"

"How do you know I was going to ask anything?"

"Because I know you too well and from the way you were trying not to look at me. So, either my chest wraps offend your delicate sensibilities, or you're going to ask me something," she said as she stretched her arms over her head. "And you've never been offended by my breasts before, so ask already."

He glared at her before nearly throwing down his tool onto the wooden board he had been so busy trying to fix into place. "What is it with you and those stupid books?" he growled.

Naruto stopped hammering as well, muttering under his breath, "Here we go again . . ."

"What exactly is it about the books I read that you can't understand?" she asked as she glared back. A staring contest ensued in which neither of them looked away -- a contest of wills to see who would crack first, as if that would prove one of them right. After a silent, tension-filled minute, Sasuke looked away first with an indignant snort and picked up the hammer again. "I don't understand how you can like the guys in those books. It's like you prefer them over men that are actually real."

"Like you, you mean?" she asked speculatively.

"Like any of us. We're all just as good as the men in those books. But we're not them, which is the problem with us, isn't it?"

Sakura's mouth gapped open a moment in shock then snapped shut again. "I know that . . . I do. I don't just read them for the heroes, like you're assuming."

"Really? Because it certainly seems that way."

"There is the escapism of reading too, imagining a story that wouldn't be possible to actually happen. If you stopped thinking about yourself for a minute maybe you'd realize that," Sakura snapped back at him, "I almost think you're jealous of me and my books. Maybe you need your own hobby."

Naruto cringed when he saw the Sharingan flash in both of Sasuke's eyes and the woman he was arguing with ignored the look. She reached for her book from her hip pouch instead, turning away as a snake started to form in Uchiha's hand. "Don't," the blond warned him with a stern look of his own, "this argument isn't worth it."

The snake disappeared but Sasuke's obvious irritation hadn't. "How do you know it isn't important, huh? You only dated her once, and she let you off a lot easier than me. You don't 'suck.' I'm not like you, Naruto. I need to know why I don't measure up to that perfect little image in her head of exactly what she wants."

Sakura sighed, half in loathing, half in guilt. "This is what this is about? Because you really are jealous of my books?"

"No . . . not exactly. I am not jealous . . . much." He was loath to admit, but she was partially right. The pitying look in her big green eyes didn't help assuage his anger. He stood up, brushing off his pants and grabbing the hammer, nails, and wooden planks before starting to walk across to another open patch in the roof. Grumbling, Sasuke settled down again before turning towards her. "I'm only . . . concerned because you fawn over them so much, because the men in them aren't even real. The relationships in them would never work out between real people. You would never put up with a man that treated you like that."

"Like what?"

"Like you're their property to play with. You're too independent of a woman to put up with controlling behavior for more than a minute. If someone tells you to do something, and you don't like it, you tend to do whatever you want anyway. You don't want a man to possess you like what happens in those books. But you're so enamored with them anyway that you seem to ignore everything else. It isn't healthy."

"I don't ignore everything else, and I don't fawn over them . . ." she said defensively, doing her best not to raise her voice at him, "I know the men in my books aren't real. Neither are the women. Most of them are spineless, helpless wilting females that are completely useless without those guys ordering them around to begin with. You said it yourself; I am nothing like that, so why would I want a guy like that to begin with?"

"But you do like guys like the ones in those books, don't you?" Sasuke asked again as she frowned at him, "You've dated them before, remember."

He was beginning to sound like a broken record, and it was really starting to irritate her. "Guys like what exactly?" she asked, crossing her arms over her bandaged chest, "I've only ever dated you."

Naruto chuckled in response, "Tall, dark, and brooding, Sakura-chan. He means tall, dark, and brooding."

"Exactly," the Uchiha said, nodding in agreement, "You can sit there and tell us those aren't the type of guys you like all you want, but you know, I can't believe you."

"Gee, they really do sound exactly like you . . . except they were less of jerks to me over the years than you," Sakura snarked back as the blond continued chuckling to himself, "I didn't break up with you because you didn't live up to my books. I broke up with you because you're still you, arrogant, angry, and with an ego the size of the entire village. You can't tell me you are not those things given what you've done in the past."

Naruto and Sai flinched at the same time and watched their male friend intently to see how he'd react, betting on homicidal rage as the most likely outcome. And yet, it didn't happen. He simply cast one dark look in Sakura's direction then muttered a blasé, "Yeah, so what?"

The pink-haired woman's face softened as she moved to sit next to him. "We've been over this already," she explained gently, "You're a nice guy, Sasuke, deep down. I'm always going to care about you no matter what. You're as much a friend and brother to me, as Sai or Naruto, but . . . you'll really suck as a boyfriend until you get over yourself. You know this too."

He started to protest, "I am not-"

"Oh, really, give it a rest already," the blond interrupted him, "You still think of yourself as a gift to women even if you haven't had a date in months. I get lucky more than you do."

Sasuke glared at Naruto before turning back to Sakura. "This doesn't explain the fact that no one but me seems to have come close to living up to your expectations."

Her green eyes rolls. "I have dated guys besides you, you know."

"Yeah, Naruto, for exactly one date. Name one other guy you've dated longer than me."

As much as she would have loved to throw a name back at Sasuke just to wipe that arrogant, I-know-I'm-right smirk off his face, she couldn't. She couldn't think of even one name to give him. He was completely right. There was no one else she had dated as long as him, and it really pissed her off that he was right. Had she really only dated him? No, it wasn't possible. He could not be right about her taste in men!

The kunoichi nearly screamed in frustration as they all went back to hammering, pointedly ignoring her . . . until she stood up to really scream at them, "Ok, I get it! Yes, I haven't dated anyone else really! You're point is made! Are you happy or what!?"

Three faces looked up at her and then at each other. One by one they shrugged or nodded, as if they were having a completely silent conversation amongst themselves, before turning back to their work. Sakura nearly screamed again, turning to stomp off when Sai said, "You know, it would be fine if you just admitted that you have high standards. No one would blame you if you did."

"I do not have high standards."

"More like unrealistic expectations," Sasuke grumbled.

"I don't have those either, I just . . ." she started to say before trailing off. Her arms twirled and flailed, as if she were trying to grab the words she wanted from thin air. "You just don't know what you want, huh?" Naruto offered with a shrug, "There's nothing wrong with being confused."

Standing there twisting her fingers, Sakura muddled over his assessment. The blond boy wasn't typically smart, but . . . he did have that uncanny ability to read people. Maybe she was confused about what she wanted in a man? In truth, she had never really thought about it before. It wasn't that she was lonely or anything. It just wasn't what she centered her life on anymore. When she was younger, her whole world revolved around Sasuke and her crush, but now, it was focused on the shinobi way . . . and her precious books. "Oh, Kami-sama," she groaned to herself as she sunk back down to sit on the roof, "I really am turning into Kakashi-sensei . . ."

Naruto grinned at her, laughing softly to himself. "But you are a lot cuter than he is, Sakura-chan."

The laughter only got louder when she groaned. "This isn't funny! I am not-! Grrr, I am not using my books as a crutch like he does! But I am confused . . ."

She trailed off, looking away from them and towards the rest of the temple grounds. Out in the gardens, the man she had been speaking of worked at pulling down choking vines and weeds from covering the statuary. Moving up closer to the distracted kunoichi, Sai looked over her shoulder, peering in the same direction towards their leader. After a moment of watching curiously, Sasuke leaned over to look as well, then returned to work with a bitter sounding laugh to himself. "Don't like tall, dark and brooding, huh?" he joked and Sakura nearly jumped at being caught.

Unlike the Uchiha, the ink-user didn't laugh at her as he moved back to the section he had been repairing. He did smile knowingly at her though. Her eyelashes fluttered as she blinked in confusion at them. "What?"

"Kakashi-sensei -- he's exactly like those men in your books," Sasuke said with a smirk, "Tall, dark, and brooding."

She sighed. "That is so not Kakashi-sensei. He may be tall, but he's way too pale to be dark, and he doesn't brood."

"He may not brood, but he certainly has issues."

"Yes, mostly with being on time," Sakura said with her own smirk, "This is Kakashi you both are talking about, remember. We've known him for a while, but he isn't exactly the most open and forthcoming person. He's insensitive, eccentric, perverted, aloof, and mysterious."

" . . . That sounds like a typical gothic hero, except for the fact that our taichou isn't a controlling asshole," Sai said as he continued to hammer away.

Sakura blinked. Actually, he had a bit of a point . . . "Gah! Don't be ridiculous!" she said with a vigorous shake of her head, "It's Kakashi for goodness sake, he's so . . ."

"Himself?" Sasuke asked, still smirking.

"Well, yeah . . ."

"None of us have ever seen under his mask," Naruto pointed out, "That's probably why he seems so mysterious. I've heard rumors though . . ."

The kunoichi's curiosity was peeked as the blond trailed off. "Like what?"

"That he wears that mask because he's devastatingly handsome."

"I thought at one point you said he had fish lips or buck teeth?" Sasuke grumbled at his friend, "Who did you hear this one off of?"

"The Ichiraku ramen lady, she said she got a peek under his mask!" Naruto shot back, crossing his arms in indignation. He looked as if he was about to shout again when Sai interrupted, "I heard something else about our taichou. I heard his father died and then all his previous teammates died during the war. Maybe he's cursed or something."

Three pairs of eyes stared in stunned silence at the ink-user as he didn't look back at them. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura looked at each other, shocked and bewildered by what he has just said. "Is he making this up?"

"I don't know."

"But he can't be serious."

"But what if he's right? Kakashi-sensei always said . . ."

"Who did you hear it from?" Sakura finally asked him.

Sai stopped hammering to finally look up at the anxious stares being cast in his direction. "Yamato-san mentioned it to me a while ago . . . I thought you all knew what happened considering how long this team has been together."

"What exactly did Yamato say?" Sasuke asked.

"His father was the White Fang of Konoha, a hero, at least until he ditched an important mission to save his team. The failure started a war, so, he killed himself when Kakashi was about eight. Then his best friend and the female medic of his team both died within a year of each other. His best friend was an Uchiha that actually died protecting him and the medic. It's his eye that was transplanted into Kakashi. Then, his sensei, the Fourth Hokage, died when he was fourteen. He visits the memorial every morning before our meetings for them. That's why he's always late . . . and also why is probably isn't very close with all of you."

The former members of Team Seven looked at each other in new understanding. Was Sai right or not? His story made sense if it was correct. They had all heard rumors over the years of some great tragedy in the life of their sensei that kept him from forming close bonds with others, but never all the details or from such a reliable source as Yamato. If anyone knew about Kakashi, it was him, especially since the ANBU operative wasn't one to further idle gossip. "That isn't just a rumor, Sai," Naruto said as he looked away from his teammates, "But you knew that didn't you?"

The ink-user gave her a false smile that wilted quickly. "I guessed it wasn't, but it seemed hard to be believed to me."

"Considering my own family history, you should not have been so surprised," Sasuke grumbled, "Come on. Get back to work."

The hammering started again as Sakura sat there, glancing off into the distance at their captain. They had a point, she guessed. Kakashi really did have more in common with the melancholy heroes in her books than she realized. Unlike them though, the man she knew was real, and had actually endured despite all that life had thrown at him. She couldn't say if he was a better man for it or not, but he had somehow managed to retain his humanity. Even Sasuke couldn't say that. In all the tragedy that had befallen the Uchiha clan, the last survivor had lost that aspect of himself on the path of vengeance. It took a lot of time for him to find it again, and even then, she knew he was still not the same Sasuke that she remembered.

But, Kakashi . . . he was the same as he had always been, unchangeable and seemingly invincible. To think there was a vulnerable side underneath all that irreverent behavior of his was intriguing. It was like she was noticing him for the first time ever, and she probably was. In all her previous thoughts about her teammates, she never really took the time to think about him, his past, or even the circumstances surrounding his ongoing presence on the team. She had to admit, the Copy nin was rather good at going unnoticed, even to his friends.

It was like he almost wanted to be taken for granted by them, but she knew that couldn't be true . . . could it?

"Oi! Sakura-chan!" Naruto yelled right into her ear.

The pink-haired kunoichi jumped with a yelp. "Naruto! You really scared me!" she shouted at him, shoving him away from her.

"It's not my fault you scare easily," the blond grumbled as he rubbed his now sore shoulder, "I can't help that you're so easily distracted either."

"I am not-," she started to yell before stopping at the glowering look on his face. It was no use denying it. Sakura sighed in defeat. "Ok, so maybe I am."

Smiling to himself, Naruto glanced over her shoulder. "I can see how he'd be so distracting," he said before nodding towards the pile of ceramic tiles sitting on the roof "You should get back to work before he notices. We are going to need more help to finish."

"Oh . . . right," she said while standing up, "I'll be back."

The blond nodded to her, moving back to his work. As she descended back down the ladder, Sai grinned to himself in genuine happiness. He knew it. All the stubborn kunoichi needed was a gentle nudge to get her mind going in the right direction. Even if he felt bad for dangling their fearless leader before her curious little nose like a carrot, the effort would be worth it if she took the bait. From the way she was beginning to stare at him, he was almost sure that she had, hook, line, and sinker. After all their talk about Kakashi, she would be foolish not to. Then again, since when had Sakura ever been smart in regards to men?

Feeling a pair of eyes on him, Sai looked up to see Sasuke staring at him with half-lidded eyes. He blinked at his teammate in confusion. "What?"

"What are you up to?" the Uchiha asked, suspicious of the innocent look on the ink-user's face when he obviously wasn't all that guiltless. If there was one thing he learned in his time coming back to Team Kakashi, it was that the dark-haired young man named Sai was always up to something, and it was never anything terribly good.

". . . Nothing," Sai lied, smiling at him in return.

Sasuke smirked. "Yeah, right, nothing . . ."

"You know, it looks like it's going to rain."

". . . Whatever."

**********

She walked back from the small shed where Mikoto kept repair materials for the temple with another bundle of tiles strapped to her back. In the distance she could hear the clink upon clink of ceramic being stacked on top of ceramic. The sun had begun to descend in the sky as the day turned towards night, but from the grey clouds building, one couldn't tell too well. At least the heat had let up . . . a little.

Sakura trudged back towards the temple, tired and weary as she had spent most of the day ferrying those stinking tiles. It wasn't hard work like actually repairing the roof was, but the tediousness of it was getting to her. What didn't help was how distracted she became after the talk on top of the roof. Somehow, she kept finding herself glancing towards the garden where Kakashi worked at pulling down more overgrown vines. She couldn't exactly help looking. It wasn't just the talk they had getting to her either. He just looked so . . .

Hot.

It felt uncomfortable for her to admit, but her sensei did look hot once most of his baggy clothing was removed. At some point in his work, he had stripped off his green vest and blue, long-sleeved shirt, wearing nothing but a stretchy black undershirt with the attached mask. He had apparently even stopped to change his usual loose pants for a pair of tighter, blue capris. If he had been naked, it would have been just as shocking considering how overdressed he usually was.

The dark crimson ANBU tattoo on his well-formed left bicep stood out vividly from his pale skin, a bright spot of deep color on the otherwise neutral expanse. In spite of the dark material of his undershirt, she could clearly see the shape of his muscles underneath in the play of light and shadow across the tight knit textile. If she had known how perfectly built he was underneath all those layers of material, she might have noticed Kakashi a lot sooner. She could just imagine how the body hidden beneath would look without the bother of that shirt. In fact, she could almost imagine how his skin might feel under her fingers, how tightly his arms could enfold her, how he would feel if . . .

Finding herself blushing while staring a little too intently at him, she abruptly looked away. Her green eyes focused instead on the path under her feet. Somehow she still managed to ignore a root sticking up from between the stones, tripping over it. With a yelp, Sakura began to fall only catching herself by taking a wobbling step forward, finding her balance at the last moment. Grumbling, she paused and stood still, steadying herself between bouts of mental rear kicking. This was bad, really bad. Looking up again, she saw Kakashi staring right at her with a torn cluster of underbrush in his arms. He blinked. "Are you . . . ?"

Sakura blushed, trying to avoid looking directly into his dark eyes. "I'm fine. I'm just . . ."

"You should rest a little if you're tired. I think they have enough tiles for now."

Hesitantly, the kunoichi took a step forward. She had already had one break. She shouldn't really . . . and yet she found herself walking anyway, as if she was being drawn towards him. As Kakashi went back to work, Sakura put down her burden and climbed up top of a nearby statue, the figure of a rearing temple dog. She sat on its head sideways, bent over with her arms crossed and resting on her knees, her feet propped up on the dog's reaching forearm.

Kakashi pulled another vine free and tossed it aside on the growing mound of plant matter. The man didn't stop working, which kind of annoyed her. She knew he had a strong work ethic, but this was ridiculous. He had been the one to invite her over to rest. It would only be proper for him to rest as well, especially when she was sure he hadn't stopped for a break once.

Kakashi threw a few more tendrils of ripped vines down, and was about to go back for more when he saw something flying towards him in his peripheral vision. A snap of his hand and he caught the object easily before it could smack into the side of his head. He looked curiously up at the water canteen then towards the perched kunoichi. "What's this for?" he asked, despite already unscrewing the lid.

"You need a break much more than I do, rest."

Kakashi smirked underneath his mask. "You've seen this place, Sakura. I don't have time to be taking breaks if this is going to be done by sundown."

"Then give me the gloves and I'll work instead," she offered, holding out her hand to accept them.

He hesitated, not moving to hand the work gloves over, but not withdrawing back towards the mass of encroaching vines he has been busy destroying either. It wasn't often that Sakura concerned herself enough with him to offer herself to do hard manual labor. "Is there some reason you're suddenly concerned enough about me to do the work yourself?"

"I haven't even seen you stop for water. You're going to get rapidly dehydrated if you keep this up. As team medic, I'm telling you to take five minutes to rest and drink," she said with a frown. "Being at least a little lazy hasn't killed you before."

"My usual work ethic hasn't killed me either . . . yet." His one eye creased happily and sardonically at her. "This isn't a ploy to see under my mask, is it?"

Sakura's eyes rolled. "The four of us have tried everything we could think of to see your face just once. I don't think handing you water is going to accomplish that now, would it?"

"I don't know. None of you have ever tried simply asking me before."

The pink-haired young woman's jaw dropped open in shock only to snap shut again at the sound of his snickering. Her frown deepened when he turned away from her. The work gloves fell from his hand with a soft plop. She saw the backs of his arms raise up to his face. She could only assume he was taking a drink of the water but he didn't once permit her to peek at his features. Fighting down a disappointed sigh, she watched as his arms lowered again and he turned to face her. The mask was back in place, not that she expected it to be anywhere else.

Kakashi walked across the yard and tossed the canteen at her mid-step. She caught it as he moved past her, stopping at the head of the dog statue and plopping down onto the ground in the shade of the large stone figure.

She sat unmoved for a few moments, the story Sai told tugging at the back of her mind. She couldn't help but be curious about the man under the mask and the reputation. He was the Great Copy Nin of Konoha, a legend in his own right, a title that would have been intimidating to the kunoichi if it weren't for the fact that he was her teacher. She knew him and his habits well enough, but she really didn't _know him_ at all, at least not as well as she knew her three other teammates. Despite being a member of their team and a steady presence in her life for over six years, there was so little she knew about the actual man. Just like Sai, who had to ask Yamato about Kakashi, everything she knew of him seemed like second hand information from outside sources.

But, just bluntly asking him about his past would be too invasive if it really was as horrible as the ink user said. He probably didn't tell them for that fact alone, and not just that he really was a private person. There certainly were things she wouldn't want him to know about her either. It wasn't a terribly polite thing to do, but she couldn't exactly help wanting to just ask. He almost seemed to like keeping his personal life a mystery, and she really liked mysteries, almost as much as she liked the idea of the supernatural.

Maybe Sai was right after all about him, though Sakura suspected his motives for making such a comparison between the real man and the ones in her books in the first place was just as mysterious as the Copy nin was. He had to be pulling her strings to get her to pay attention to their aloof team leader, but, for whatever reason, she didn't mind so much if he really was leading her on to some end. She really wouldn't mind learning more about the man she had admitted to admiring, even if it felt weird and sudden.

If he said just one thing that she could add to her personal knowledge of him, the entire conversation would be worth it.

Curious, Sakura leaned over the head of the great beast, looking down at the silver-haired man. Not surprisingly, he already had a familiar tired-looking book in his hands, cracked open and at the ready. After few moments, his head tilted upwards, and he stared straight up at her. "Can I help you with something?" he asked.

She cringed, ducking down enough that she was no longer in his direct line of sight. Peeking back up though, she saw him paying attention to his book again, and not to her. Watching him, her stomach turned in knots, nervous with curiosity. He read on silently; the only sound between them being the turning of paper pages. As she peeked over the dog's head again, he didn't once look up at her. It was as if he had forgotten about her . . . or he was doing a very good job at ignoring the stares her eyes were drilling into the top of his head. "Can I ask you a question, Sensei?" she asked, unable to bear holding back her interest any longer.

"Will I be able to decline the question if I do not feel like answering?" Kakashi asked in return.

She frowned. "Knowing you, you'll weasel your way out of an answer anyway. So, no, I don't expect you to even attempt to answer a single thing I ask you."

He couldn't help but chuckle to himself at how well she knew his bad habits. "Then why do you feel like asking me something?" he asked with a shrug of his shoulders, "when there's no guarantee that I'll answer you?"

"Because there's an off chance you might slip up and actually give me a direct answer."

Chuckling again in amusement at her response, Kakashi said, "Alright then. Ask your questions."

"Do you feel silly reading so much?"

Confused by the question, he blinked. What an odd thing to be asked by someone. And here he assumed she would want to know something personal, like why he wore the mask. Why would she even care whether he felt silly for reading? "Is this about the content of my choice in reading?" Kakashi asked, tilting his head up to look at her.

This time, she didn't duck to avoid his gaze, staring curiously right back at him. "No, I don't care what you read or not, just that you read. You're the only other person I know who reads as much as I do."

He put his head down, brewing over the original question for a few moments while turning the pages in his beloved book. "No, I don't feel silly reading porn. I hardly ever feel silly about anything I do."

Which was a lie, and he knew it. He felt incredibly silly for his hidden attraction to Sakura, that was for certain even if he'd never admit to feeling it. He was thirty-two, much too old to have a crush on any woman let alone one twelve years his junior. But he did have one, regardless of how he felt about it. She couldn't know about it either, couldn't possibly know. Knowing would utterly ruin the very-fulfilling version of Icha Icha Paradise he had been casting her in inside of his head . . . which actually disturbed him more than he liked to admit. Then again, she had been entering his masturbatory material for a few weeks now and wouldn't go away no matter how much he tried to cast another woman in his dreams. All in all, he had gotten used to the idea of being aroused by her without actually feeling guilty over it, and certainly didn't want that to change any time soon.

What was even sillier, and slightly more disturbing, was the amount of time he had recently spent pondering what real sex would be like with the feisty kunoichi. That situation was a scenario he should never have entertained, especially considering her, well . . . it was no secret that Sakura lacked any kind of experience with the opposite sex. He once overheard Sasuke boast about being able to kiss her while on their three dates, but not much more than that. Sai's story of her obliviousness towards men only made his assumption of her virginity all the more valid. Given that fact, entertaining the idea of Sakura in his bed made him feel dirty.

And yet, it wasn't that bad sort of dirty. . .

Falling silent again while contemplating exactly how he felt about her, Kakashi definitely sensed an insistent nagging at the back of his head telling him that she was staring at him. Sure enough, when he caved in and looked up, she was staring down at him with green eyes full of skepticism. Moments later, Sakura smiled at him, and giggled. "Of course you're not silly. You're a wonderfully mature individual, and a perfect role-model to us all."

His eye creased. She was actually cute when she was sarcastic. "Thank you," Kakashi replied, grinning as he went back to reading.

A squawk of disbelief sounded from the kunoichi above him. "That wasn't a compliment!"

"It was to me."

". . . You're weird."

It took her this long to figure that out about him?

"Why do you read those books anyway, Kakashi-sensei?"

"I don't know. I guess I just like them. My sensei seemed to like them, and they were written by his sensei, so . . ." he muttered before realizing that he had answered a somewhat personal question without thinking. She giggled at him as he scowled in her direction with a quick glance upwards. Snorting, he turned another page. "Why do you read your books then? Because you like them, right?"

He could hear the troublesome kunoichi shift around on the stone above him without any answer.

"I suppose that is a yes." Smirking, he decided to ask her a question of his own, "Why exactly did you ask me if I felt silly for reading?"

"I don't know . . . I felt like asking," she laconically replied, but he knew that wasn't the real reason. Sakura must have felt that too as after a moment she said further, "Maybe it's how the boys make me feel when I do my own reading."

"Are they picking on you again?"

"Sort of . . ."

She sounded a touch nervous, which made Kakashi curious. Sakura wasn't normally one to hide something, unless it was embarrassment that made her seem hesitant to say anything else. Part of him felt like prying but he reminded himself that he didn't like it when people tried to meddle in his private life either. Either way, it didn't change his advice to her. "Ignore them. What you do with your time is your business, not theirs."

"You really think that?"

"It's worked for me, hasn't it?" he said, smirking to himself.

She giggled at him. "I hardly think ignoring people you're close to builds bonds with them."

"Huh? What did you say?" Kakashi asked, pretending to be deaf as her laughter grew, "I don't ignore people. I just tend to do my own thing, that's all."

"Then how come we rarely talk like this?"

"Because normally we're busy. If we're not on a mission, we're training, and inevitably, two certain shinobi keep asking me to teach them more jutsu, jutsu, jutsu. Sometimes I really wish I didn't know that many jutsu just so I didn't have to teach them."

"I see your point," she said, trying not to laugh again, "And thank you."

Kakashi blinked, closing his book. "Thank you, for what?"

"For the advice, even if I didn't ask for it."

"You're welcome . . ." he trailed off with a thoughtful hum for a moment before asking, "Can I ask you another question now?"

Sakura blinked, surprised. "Sure, I guess?"

"Are you really that concerned about what the boys think of you and your reading?"

"Um, not really . . ."

He didn't believe that, not for one second. It suddenly clicked in Kakashi's head as he asked, "Did the boys call you silly?"

"Well, ok, sort of, but not really if that makes sense," she tried to explain, her stomach twisting in knots before she finally admitted what she wanted to ask in the first place, "They didn't call me stupid so much as question my choice in reading material, and it got me thinking that, well . . . do you think I'm silly?"

The Copy nin paled, dreading the answer to that very loaded question. It was almost as bad as the dreaded 'do I look fat to you' question. No matter which way he answered, he was screwed, figuratively of course. If he lied and said she was silly just to get her to leave him alone, she'd hate him for it, but if he told her the truth and said too much, it would make her suspicious about his actual feelings for her. Embarrassingly simple, yet difficult, prying questions would follow, and he would be in trouble no matter what he said.

It would be better if he didn't say anything at all and there was only one way to go about that. "Why would you care if I thought you were silly or not?" he evaded with a question of his own.

"Because I value your opinion, that's why."

"But you value the opinion of the boys as well, or else it wouldn't be troubling you."

"Of course I do, but I value yours also. You're not like the boys, you're . . ." She trailed off with a very pregnant pause.

Kakashi grinned to himself, very interested in the answer she seemed to still be forming in her head. "I am what then compared to our teammates?"

"Ok, I can't say you're totally a mature individual, but you're certainly better at pretending to be an adult than they are," Sakura admitted with a reluctant sigh, "Even Sai isn't as good at trying to be grown up. I mean, you're older than them; you've obviously had more experiences, good and bad. There's also the fact that you rarely state you opinions about anything, let alone another person, except if they're screwing up something important, and . . . and you're not answering my question."

He winced as she caught on so quickly, much quicker than he had expected. A frustrated sounding growl above him followed by a grunt of exertion got his attention and he looked up. Kakashi didn't have to look far since Sakura was now hanging over the head of the guardian dog statue, her body practically upside down. He tried to shrink down, his heart suddenly forming a lump in his throat. She was much too close for his comfort, more so than she had been in months. "Stop, you're going to break your neck doing that . . ." he tried to warn her, squashing the uneasiness in his voice.

"Not until you answer my question. Just this once, I want your honest opinion of me. Do you think I am silly or not?"

"Well, you're being very silly at the moment, it would seem."

Giving another frustrated noise, she moved back up to her position astride the dog, no longer looking down at him or hanging off the creature's head. "You're difficult, you know that?" she muttered. "You can't even tell a person how you really feel about them. For all I know, you could hate me and you're just putting up with me, but because you're too cowardly to tell me to my face, I'd never know."

"I don't hate you, Sakura," Kakashi said as he cracked open his book again, "and I also think you've moved on from silly to dramatic."

"Right . . ." she trailed off in a tone of disbelief. Moments later, he heard the soft thud of her sandal-covered feel hitting the ground. "Break time over. I'm getting back to work," the kunoichi announced punctuated by the clanking from the bundle of roofing tiles she heaved up.

She was angry; not her usual pissed off angry, but disappointed angry. And, to make matters worse, she was angry with him. Sakura didn't have to say it out loud since her sudden willingness to get back to the menial labor at hand and away from him said enough. Shit, he had screwed up. Cursing softly to himself, Kakashi abruptly stood up, raising his voice when he heard her begin to walk away, "Sakura, wait."

Stopping mid-step, she turned towards him slowly with one pink eyebrow arched delicately. The look on her older sensei's face was interesting, as if she had caught him completely off-guard and un-composed as he usually was. "I, well, you see . . ." he started to say as she smiled slightly.

The illustrious Copy nin seemed to be stammering his words. "Yes?" she asked, trying to keep from smiling.

Sakura watched while his chest expanded, taking in a great, deep breath before saying, "I don't think you are silly for what you read. It's what you like, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is, but . . ."

"But nothing, if you like it, then you like it, right?"

"Have you ever read one of my books, Kakashi-sensei? They're romance and usually gothic romance at that. Even I admit that they're not the most realistic portrayal of human emotion, or men and their behavior for that matter."

Honestly, no, he hadn't read anything remotely resembling the books she would read, but he had heard enough of the objections from all three of her cohorts to know what she was talking about. He couldn't recall, though, what their usual criticisms of the heroes in her books were, except for the imposing body structure possessed that none of her living teammates had.

"I don't quite understand what you're getting at, Sakura," he admitted, leaning against the dog statue, "I don't even know why my opinion of you and your reading matters. Nothing I say would keep you from reading those books one way or another. No one could possibly tell you otherwise. You're going to do what you want with your free time. That's just how you are, and . . . I suppose sticking to your gut feelings is admirable, in a way."

"In a way?" she questioned.

"Sometimes stubbornness is a fine quality to have . . . it's worked for me, hasn't it?"

Slowly, a smile spread across the face of the pink-hair kunoichi. He didn't understand one bit, did he? Not that she could blame him much, but . . . it felt nice to hear him talk about her like that, even a little flattering to be called admirable for her stubbornness of all things. At least, she thought it was supposed to be flattering, right? She never could be too sure with him, but in this case, she took it as a compliment anyway. Regardless, he actually has said something meaningful about her, which felt wonderful. "Thank you, Kakashi-sensei, hearing you say that makes me feel a lot better. It means a lot to me."

A sense of dread filled the stomach of the Copy nin as he was sure he had said too much. ". . . You're welcome . . ."

"Um, I should probably . . ."

"Yeah . . ."

With a small wave of her hand, Sakura turned around and walked away. Kakashi watched her go, holding up his hand in return to wave even if he knew she wouldn't see it. After a long moment, he felt foolish enough to reach up and scratch the back of his head instead. His eyes drifted down the pink-haired young woman's retreating form, once again stopping at her swaying posterior. "Damn . . ." he muttered to himself before shaking his head and turning away.

She was beginning to become a problem, a big problem, for him. The staring didn't worry him so much as her questions did. She wanted his opinion of her, and he had honestly given it for once. That she managed to get him to talk so openly and unguardedly was unnerving. He should have known better than to give her a clear answer since it would only lead to more questions. Next, she would be asking him if she looked fat or something else ridiculous like that, and he would be expected to answer her just as openly and honestly, which he just might do. Before he knew it, he could lose control completely around her and end up confessing exactly how he felt, which frightened him even more. At his rate, he might actually fall in love with her . . . if he wasn't already.

Still staring at Sakura's figure as she ascended the ladder, he nearly whimpered in fear.

It was an incredibly odd and somewhat funny feeling to be scared by the pink-haired young woman that he knew so well. Thousands of shinobi and hundreds of trials of certain doom where his very life hung in the balance could not even elicit that much of a reaction. This was all Sai's fault. If Sai hadn't opened his mouth and given voice to the ideas already tumbling around in Kakashi's perverted mind, he might have been able to remain blissfully content with just looking. Shoving his hands in his pants pockets, he turned away, walking back towards the tangled mess of vine he still had to rip out.

At least Sai was incorrect about one thing in all his divining on Kakashi's feeling towards Sakura. Kakashi's intentions, while heartfelt and honorable, were totally and thoroughly impure.

**********

_The heavy door opened with bang, a sudden flash of nearly blinding light in the midst of the darkness enveloping her. She screamed in pain, shielding her eyes from the brightness before the door slammed closed again. A moment later, she was still screaming when she was roughly tugged back to her feet. Her back was pressed against the stone wall as a hand wrapped over her throat. Her screams died, turning into pained whimpers. She weakly tried to claw at the fingers pressing hard into her delicate neck only to go limp. Feeling her resistance fade, his hard grip let up even although he didn't let her go. Dimly, she heard the metal thunk of a candle holder being placed down. Warm golden light filled the room, her eyes adjusting to it. Fearful, she looked up into the handsome face of the man keeping her there, her own husband. _

"_Please, let me go," she whimpered, pleading with him without any shame or pride left. "I am sorry. Just let me go, and I'll disappear. I won't trouble you-"_

_She nearly choked as his thumb pressed down on her throat. "This is a problem for me my dear wife, as you've seen too much already. You are also too much trouble to just 'disappear,' as you put it."_

_Tears swelled in her eyes. "Please. You can't keep me here. Let me go-"_

"_I do not desire you to go!" he shouted in her face. The hand on her throat finally released only to be replaced by his muscular body pinning her to wall instead. She struggled to push him away yet shuddered as she felt his breath wash over her skin, knowing his eyes were stripping away her thin night shift. Unable to resist, a shameful blush spread across her cheeks. _

"_I married you, you are mine. You took a vow remember. To have and to hold, until death do us part," he whispered harshly into her burning ears, "I am your husband, and you are my wife. You broke my rules in my house by entering where I expressly forbid you from going. You brought this punishment onto yourself, my naughty mistress."_

"_I am sorry . . ."_

"_No, you are not. You found what you wanted to, and now you want nothing to do with me, don't you?"_

"_That isn't true."_

"_Then why do you persist in wanting to run from me, to leave me. Don't you love me anymore?"_

"_Not like this . . . How can I when you keep me like this?"_

"_I locked you up here not just to punish you, but to keep you from running. You will learn to love me, you will learn to obey me, you will learn your place here, and you will remain here because I desire it. You will learn that the only thing required of you is what I desire of you, and oh, how you will learn, in time."_

_Working up the nerve to face him, she glared angrily in response to the arrogant superior look on his face. "If you would have told me, if you would have trusted me-"_

"_I trusted you once already to do as you're told, my lady."_

"_You didn't marry me for my obedience, my lord," she hissed back, "Do not mistake me for one of your dogs or the witch you keep locked up in that room!"_

_An angry snarl formed on his handsome features, predatory and hateful, and her bravery faded. He gripped her long, blonde hair, yanking the tangled mess until her throat was bared to him. The breath was stolen from her mouth with a searing kiss that bruised her lips. A strong hand gripped the delicate fabric of her shift, ripping it asunder. And then-_

**********

Sakura jumped as a loud crack of thunder ripped across the room, wrenching her concentration from the book. Her heart slammed in her chest, halfway up her throat from the intensity of what she had read. The patter of falling rain continued outside the temple, hitting the new tiles on the roof with a distinctive clink that reverberated down over the stone and wood. She let out the nervous breath she had been holding. It was just thunder, she convinced herself.

"Boo!"

The kunoichi jumped again, with a scream this time, as she nearly fell off of her bedding cover and the futon underneath and onto the bare tatami covered floor. Now on her side with the book fallen from her hands, she glared at Naruto, who looked entirely too please with himself. She wanted to smack the fox-like grin off his face. "That wasn't funny!" she yelled at, pulling herself up to sit on her knees, "You scared the living daylights out of me!"

"That's kind of ironic since it's night time, Sakura-chan," the blonde replied, still chuckling to himself.

"It's a figure of speech, idiot," she muttered, quickly picking the book back up before he could have a chance to swipe it from her. The insult didn't deter him one bit as he flopped down on top of his own futon, stretching out while getting the covers all wet. She frowned at him, reminded of a certain dog boy of Konoha. "You could have at least shaken off from your bath since you seem to hate towels so much."

Naruto wiggled his eyebrows at her. "You're lucky I wore one back this time."

"Gee, how thoughtful of you," Sakura grumbled, trying to find her lost place in the novel, "I'm sure the last time I punted your head in a wall for casual nudity had a bit of impact on your choice this time."

The grin on his face stopped, turning into a frown. He rubbed the phantom pains that reappeared on the back of his head from just remembering the incident. "You have no sense of humor anymore, Sakura-chan," the blond whined.

"On the contrary, her sense of humor is decidedly darker, and vastly more . . . sadistic," Sai added from across the room. The dark-haired young man sat in a dark robe beside the sliding door that overlooked the temple gardens, watching the rain come down and soak into the ground. Sakura tried not to grin.

"I don't know what sadistic means, but it's definitely more painful if you ask me," Naruto grumbled, arms folding over his bare chest.

She giggled to herself, smiling at him. Naruto never changed, did he? Personality wise at least, he wasn't much different from the boy she had known, even if the young man beside her looked completely unlike the blond runt she grew up with. Sure, he was cute, but it was an adorable sort of cute. There were times when, like a lovable puppy, she did want to cuddle him and take him home with her, but then she'd remembered that he wasn't house-broken and would inevitably wee all over her new carpet and hump her leg.

That was probably why she always thought of him as a brother. She cared for him, about as much as anyone could short of falling in love. She loved all of them, but . . . she knew he wasn't _the one_. He was, well . . . no matter what happened to Naruto, he'd always be, well, himself, which took more patience to deal with than she possessed. Hinata suited him perfectly, and Sakura was happy for them both . . . if they'd ever get married.

Sighing to herself, she found the last sentence that she had read in her book. She was about to start indulging again when a poke to her leg jolted her concentration. Giving an exasperated growl, she yelled at Naruto, "What?! Geez!"

"You've been glued to that book since after dinner. Can't you do something else for a little?"

"Well, I would take a bath too, but I've been waiting for it to be unoccupied _since _dinner."

". . . Sorry," he said. The kicked dog expression on Naruto's face made her instantly regret the outburst. Closing the book, she sighed and rolled her green eyes upwards. "You don't have anything to be sorry about. It isn't your fault Sasuke takes forever with his personal hygiene."

"It's the hair. Every pointy spike has to be in place," Sai added with an emphatic nod towards them, "It takes him an hour at least and half a can of mousse."

"I know that since he nearly stood me up on our first date because he was having a bad hair day."

Naruto nearly giggled. "Sasuke and his porcupine hair."

The sliding door abruptly opened as a disgruntled young man in a dark blue robe with perfect looking hair strode in, glaring at the pair on the futons. "I could hear you, you know."

"Well, it's too . . . you could spend less time on your hair."

"Says the ninja wearing orange."

Sakura couldn't help but snort a laugh she had desperately trying to smother, flipping rapidly though her book for a distraction. Ignoring her, Naruto shot his friend a pissed off look. "You're just jealous because it's eye-catching! At least my clothes won't poke someone's eye out, unlike your hair!"

"Do us all a favor and just admit you look like a giant pumpkin already?"

"I do not! Take that back, you bastard!"

As the argument descended into the usual rounds of insults between the two best friends, Sakura tuned them out. For the second time, she returned to her novel and reached the last sentence she had read when her concentration was once again broken by the soft utterance of her name in a whisper. She heard it too clearly over the shouting to just ignore him. Fighting down another sigh, she turned towards Sai. He had moved away from the view outside to his futon on the other side of her. The dark-haired ink user didn't blink as he stared at her seriously. "You're considering it, aren't you?" he asked cryptically.

She blinked in return. "Considering what exactly?"

"The room?"

"I don't have the slightest idea what you mean," Sakura lied, looking pointedly down at her book in the dim hope that he'd drop the topic.

Sai didn't drop though as he asked again, "You're considering going into the room Mikoto told us not to enter, aren't you?"

"Don't be ridiculous. Mikoto said-"

"Not a single word anyone has ever said to you has ever made you change you mind once it's made up. I don't exactly expect you to start now."

Slowly, her eyes drifted sideways while she fought to control her nervous fidgeting. It was funny that Kakashi had said something similar to that to her earlier, only he seemed to mean it as a compliment. Okay, so maybe she did plan to take a peek at the room Mikoto said was haunted. Her curiosity was absolutely killing her. One day, it would inevitably be the death of her more than likely, more so than being killed by some ghost. Even if the tragic story of the miko turned out to be a fabrication, the old man obviously didn't want them poking around. There had to be something he was hiding in there, and she was determined to find it. If she did end up with a supernatural encounter, it would be icing on a rather adventurous slice of cake. All she had to do was to wait until the middle of the night and then . . .

Sakura stopped the mischievous smile that started to spread across her face before it could go any further. Sai smirked at her. Obviously, she hadn't been quick enough. "Stop looking at me like that," the kunoichi muttered at him, "If I am planning anything, which I'm not, I wouldn't tell you now would I? I don't know why it even matters to you want I do."

"It doesn't. I'm just curious if you're going in or not."

"It's like you're eager for me to go into that room . . ." she trailed off, her green eyes narrowing on him, "Do you have money riding on it or something?"

"Sakura, how could you ever think that of me?" Sai asked rhetorically with that fake smile he always used when he was outright lying. She snorted indignantly. Of course he did. He wouldn't have insistently asked her if he didn't. Knowing her teammates well enough, all of them were in the betting pool, except for Kakashi of course who was always above such things. It figured that the boys would be betting over something as stupid as whether she'd chance entering the forbidden room or not. "Who's wagering against me and for how much?"

"Sasuke and Naruto both think you won't do it. They put in one hundred ryo each. And . . ." Sai trailed off, looking sheepishly away from her.

Sakura blinked, not like this reaction from the ink user. "What is it?"

"Kakashi-san is betting against you as well, but he only put in fifty ryo, meaning . . ."

"He doesn't like the idea of me going in there, but knows I probably will anyway," she said with a frown, "Probably because he'd have to deal with the old man if anything happens to me. It's his laziness."

"What if he knows something about that room that we don't?"

"Don't be ridiculous. You saw the look on their faces. He and Sasuke don't believe that story Mikoto told. They would never appreciate a good ghost story."

"So you don't think it's real, then?" Sai asked sounding a bit mysterious himself. Another jolt of lightning followed by a clap of thunder struck outside. Sakura's voice stuck in her throat at the sudden noise. The storm's timing was curiously impeccable and dramatic to the ink-user's statement. For a moment, she almost wanted to consider that maybe the ghost was real, until she thought of how silly it would be to say aloud. It was just a storm she was reacting to. It wasn't like she was stuck living some real ghost story, was it? She took a deep breath to calm herself down. It was just a storm after all, nothing unusual about that given how hot the day was.

"No, no I don't think it is," she admitted after taking a moment to calm her nerves, "I'm not as foolish as my reading material suggests, but that doesn't mean I don't like believing that something might be there. The possibility of that room being haunted is exciting enough for me to want to look. Something has to be there or else he wouldn't have been so adamant to keep us away. Even if it isn't a ghost, that old priest is hiding something, and I'm going to find it."

The ink user gazed at her appraisingly for a moment, as if he didn't believe what she said, and then he nodded. "At least now I know my one hundred ryo is secure, no matter what you end up finding there."

Sakura smirked at him, flipping through her book once more. "I expect half your winnings."

"Only if you do something else . . ."

Stopping, the kunoichi turned to Sai and blinked in confusion. "What? What do you mean?"

"There's a smaller bet going on as well; dependant on what you'd do if you did enter the room and it was haunted."

Sakura's frown deepened. "This was Naruto's idea, wasn't it? Only he would be that stupid."

He shrugged, not committing to an answer. "We're all in agreement that Mikoto's story isn't to be believed, but Sasuke thinks you'll end up running into Kakashi's room depending on what you find in there. He bet twenty ryo on it."

Her mouth dropped in shock. He thought what? Why would he think that? A flash of anger made her see red as she realized why he would make a bet like that. "I do not like Kakashi-sensei, Sai, and I certainly wouldn't run to him like a frightened little girl either," Sakura said bluntly, her nose rising up in the air either, "If he thinks something's there between us and he's jealous of it then he's got his own delusions to deal with."

A false smile crossed the dark-haired boy's face as he nodded in mock agreement. It was a shame considering he had actually agreed with the Uchiha's bet and put in another thirty-five ryo of his own. It had been Naruto who started the whole thing by betting fifty that Sakura would end up screaming like the girl she was in the middle of the night.

So far, everything had been going according to plan. His talk with Kakashi had obviously begun to have an effect on the man's though processes. Similarly, mentioning their team leader had sparked something in the pink-haired young woman's overactive imagination. They had a conversation later that seemed to have triggered something even further between them give. He had convinced Mikoto in private to give Kakashi his own room for when Sakura eventually ran to him, just in case things came to a climax, which they seemed to be speeding towards. He had been hopeful that alerting her to these betting shenanigans would perhaps push her further and faster into the Copy nin's grasp, but, alas, it seemed like she needed a mighty shove in order to get over the hurdle of denial blocking the realization of her own feelings.

"I would not worry about him, he's . . . himself," Sai said as she nodded lightly along with him, "The bath should be open now that Sasuke's back. You should go and relax, don't let him get to you."

Smiling, she stood up. "You're right. Thank you, Sai. I'll be back in a little."

The argument between their two testy teammates stopped. They watched silently as Sakura walked over the disheveled futons towards the sliding door. Before either of them could stop her, she slid the wood and paper screen panel open and then closed again while stepping into the hallway. Naruto and Sasuke looked at each other then towards the ink-using troublemaker who had moved back towards the door to the garden. The Uchiha heir's stare bore holes into his back. "What did you say to her?"

Blinking blankly as him, Sai asked in return, "What? Isn't the bath open?"

"No, Asshole, Kakashi-sensei was just finishing up when I left. He practically shooed me out so he could shave."

"Oh, well . . ." Sai trailed off almost apologetically before smiling brightly at his teammates with a superior look on his face, "That's a problem for Sakura then isn't."

Naruto burst out in silly laughter, falling over sideways on his futon. Sasuke, on the other hand, glowered darkly. "It isn't going to work, you know. She took her book with her if you didn't notice. She's going to be too oblivious to even notice."

The triumphant look on Sai's face quickly diminished. "Oh . . . drat."

**********

As soon as she was alone in the hallway, the book was cracked open, pages rapidly flying to the heated point she had left off at. Nothing was going to stop her from reading this time, not even if the ghost of the dead, crazy miko herself walked through the hall at that very moment. Finding her spot, she started to pad down the hall in her socking feet while repeating the words on the page inside of her head.

_Needy fingers dug into her tender flesh, hurting her yet exciting her yielding body at the same time. She whined trying to stifle the moans being forced from her throat by his touch. She wanted to push him away from her, to punish him for doing this, and yet, she didn't want him to stop. He made her desire him so badly that it made her feel sick, nauseous and craven at the same time to do anything else but let him use her body. He was a monster to her as much as he was her husband, the man she loved, and yet-_

The jolt of a body nudging her shoulder shook her momentarily out of the book.

_-and yet, she hated herself just a much for giving in to him. She hated every deliriously pleasurable sensation that coursed through her-_

Sakura suddenly stopped when she reached the end of the hall, realizing that she had actually bumped into someone. All of her other teammates were in the one shared room, Mikoto had already gone to bed after eating dinner, leaving only one other person in the entire temple that could have possibly been in the hall at the same time.

Kakashi.

Her head whipped around to see a brief flash of silver hair and bare skin before the sound of a door sliding closed as he disappeared from view into his separate bedroom for the night. If only for a moment, she had seen skin, pale yet muscular, wet flesh, and then just as quickly as she had spotted him, he was gone.

Her book fell from limp, shaking fingers and her jaw dropped in shock.

Naked, wet Kakashi had actually passed by close enough to bump into her, and she had missed the entire incident. He could have been wearing nothing but a smile for all she knew. He could have been missing his mask! She had been so oblivious that she didn't even know until he was gone. She missed seeing his face, practically a chance of a lifetime, for a few torrid lines of a novel. Sakura stood absolutely still a moment as that realization whacked her over the head with her own stupidity. As it sunk in, she whined and wailed, full of regret and sorrow as her bare feet stomped on the wooden floor. How could she have missed it? How could she have been so, so foolish? And all because of her stupid reading habit!

For a brief moment, Sakura stared down at the fallen book on the floor in spite. She contemplated grabbing the wretched thing and ripping it apart before realizing that she'd never find out what happened next. While she might not have another chance to see Kakashi's bare face again, at least she'd be able to still read the end of that damned book. At least a happy ending, no matter how gloomy and abusive of a couple they were, would be worth keeping the distracting piece of fiction around. In fact, her fingers started to itch to turn the pages. Perhaps she was beginning to prefer books over men, which was a little disturbing in and of itself.

Grumbling, she reached down to pick the book back up, muttering to herself, "I am not turning into Kakashi, I am not turning into Kakashi, I am not . . ."

She trailed off. Even if she wasn't turning into her bibliophilic-leaning sensei, she certainly was picking up one of his unusual habits. Maybe she was turning into Kakashi after all . . .

With a shrug, she flipped open the book again, and turned right back to the page she left off on. Sakura went right back to walking towards the bath while reading as if the moment of potentially seeing Kakashi's face and/or naked body never happened.

**********

To be continued in Part 2 of Northanger Temple, The Horrors a Building Such as 'What One Reads About' May Produce.

AN: If you like this story, please vote for it on the Narutofan Forums via the link in my profile.


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